Banyana Banyana punished by the Swedes

South Africa's women's national football team was humiliated and outplayed by the Swedes in their opening encounter of London 2012 Olympics, just two days prior the opening ceremony of Olympics in the English capital. The game was played at Coventry in the Midlands, one of six host cities for this year's Olympics.

The game was so one-sided that the Swedes were denied an opening goal by the woodwork on the 3rd minute. The fourth ranked football team in the world finally opened the scoring on the 8th minute. Then the flood gates opened as Banyana were 3-0 down before the half-hour mark.

The South Africans scored a consolation stunner of a goal from the halfway line inside the Swedish territory, courtesy of Portia Modise who was once nominated as the Women's Football Player of the Year and was linked with a move to Arsenal FC of England.

The Swedes immediately extended the lead courtesy of their captain Lotta Schlelin, scoring her second goal of the night. The South Africans were fortunate not to concede seven goals as the Swedes hit the posts three times in that match. Mkhonza's ladies should go back to the drawing board as the team was error prone the entire match and their defence at times looked as if it did not exist and they posed no threat at all when it came to finding the back of the net. The match ended 4-1 in favour of the Europeans.